As operations expand in large manufacturing organisations, asset bases get larger. On top of this, technology in manufacturing is rapidly advancing, in order to provide distinctive capabilities to organisations committed to customer satisfaction. In such a dynamic scenario, organisations struggle to find a suitable answer to their Maintenance problems.

ECS can help in finding a sustainable Asset Management solutions to this foremost "consumption" problem faced by asset & technology intensive manufacturing industries.

All that can realistically be done in the long run is excellent Autonomous Maintenance and intelligent Condition Monitoring & Appraisal, while keeping a host of specialist organisations involved for all major and special tasks. So what is new? Outsourcing has always been in vogue in Maintenance of high technology expensive equipment where expertise has traditionally been sought in various ways. However, the practices here vary in a wide range with no clear decision mechanism.

ECS has developed a sound Maintenance Activities Outsourcing framework that takes the risk out of outsourcing and contributes significantly to the success of the outsourcing strategy. What to outsource, how to administer the business relationship such that the ownership and responsibility of keeping the equipment in its best health and precision is still internal? This is the key challenge. ECS can help organisations pin-point key manufacturing parameters that affect customer satisfaction, and relate them to Asset Management issues that need to be overcome and capabilities that need to be developed. ECS studies internal capabilities and strengths, and finally helps in formulating a comprehensive Maintenance Operations Outsourcing Programme as part of a ‘Maintenance Performance Improvement’ or ‘Asset Management’ programme.

Is Maintenance Performance Improvement simply a case of finding the right company to take all your Maintenance Manpower on its rolls? Certainly not! Organisations need to locate the world's best Maintenance Service Providers for Time Reduction and Quality Improvement in a host a specialized Maintenance Tasks for various industries. Global as well as local Maintenance Service Providers need to be evaluated. One needs to frame the right contracts that incorporate learning and improvement in performance, as a part of the Service Level Agreements. Further to this, periodic Audits are required to ensure that the relationship actually provides the right solution. ECS offers the entire range of services required to take make maintenance outsourcing a real solution set rather then the start of another problem set.

Is outsourcing of most of the maintenance a ‘fit and forget’ kind of option? Unfortunately, not. An agency is still needed to provide stewardship to all the service providers, and finally take internal ownership. TPM instills the concept of ownership in the operating team, while the need to involve experts in problem solving and specialized work is explicitly recognized. It however remains the responsibility of the cross functional operating crew to plan and engage experts for comprehensive care, while focusing on Autonomous Maintenance, Maintenance Jidoka (Early Warning / Catastrophe Prevention) Systems, Mistake Proofing and Rapid Maintenance Techniques. In this operating structure, a centralized Planned Maintenance Team comprising of Maintenance members from cross functional operating teams and procurement professionals plays the role of Maintenance Performance Administrator. It administers the various outsourcing relationships centrally.

These concepts and insights are not found in the traditional TPM texts. With more than a decade of TPM implementation in the Indian scenario, ECS has developed and deployed these powerful concepts for several clients.